More fun with sheep

The sheep in Scotland are not comfortable with people. Or, at least, the ones I met weren't. On my next-to-last day in Iona, I went out for a walk with someone I met in my hotel dining room, determined to get a photograph of me touching a sheep. Turns out, this quest was quite a process. (And yes, that's my Shalom cardigan.)

First I sidled up close to the sheep in question -- a mama with two lambies grazing on some rocks by the ocean, on the far-northern tip of the island.

I drew closer and closer...






And then she tried to pee on me. It was hilarious. And quite an effective deterrent! While I was laughing, she went to a different part of the rocks.

I did eventually have success, and got photographic evidence.

Hooray! Victory!

Sheep!

So, on my trip in June, I went to Iona. It was amazing.

I went because I'm working on a book -- yes, I am! Hence less knitting lately, and less blogging as well -- and I was given a fellowship that would allow me to get away and write for a while. So I went to a remote and holy place (Iona), holed up in a hotel room, and wrote.

I also did other stuff while I was there. Like take long walks every day. And often these walks took me through pastures... with lots of herds of sheep! Like this one, who looked at me like I was an idiot for getting so close:

And this baby, born just a couple of months earlier, who had no idea that it was supposed to be scared of me yet.And a sheep I assume was that lamby's momma, who was pretty mad that I accidentally got between her and her baby. She was NOT happy, and I got out of there quickly.

Back after a Long Absence

It's been far too long since I've updated. Since you last heard from me, I went to Scotland. Also Chicago. Also... probably other places, too. I've accomplished relatively little in the way of actual knitting in the last couple of months. But I've tried.

See?

That's NHM #13, from Selbuvotter. Random mitten for travel knitting. And that's a Trossach in the background -- part of the mountain range just north of Loch Lomond. Really, really in Scotland. Picture taken out the bus window. Why on a bus? Because the train I was supposed to take from Glasgow to Oban had derailed the day before I got there. Oops. Bus it was!

More on the trip later. For now... mitten in progress!


Yarn: same as usual, MC is Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca&Silk in Lavender, and CC is Frog Tree Alpacas Alpaca sportweight in Forest Green. Lovely combo, but the lavender gets washed out and looks like a slightly off-gray.